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Working Villagers

Hire villagers, pay them a wage and let them do the work.

Download Your first worker

Working Villagers turns villagers into paid employees. You hand them a work contract, give them a workstation and a few chests, and they start working: felling trees, sawing planks, crafting chests, farming fields, smelting ore, digging pits and tunnels, firing glass and bricks, selling goods to the villagers and carrying items from one place to another. There are no machines: everything is done by villagers walking around, opening chests and working at their stations.

Beta

This is an early beta for testing. Back up your worlds before trying it, and expect that saves may not carry over to later versions. See Beta notes.

The workers

LumberjackChopping BlockLumberjackFells natural trees around its chopping block, replants them and brings the logs to a chest.WoodcutterWoodcutterSawyerCuts logs and planks into planks, slabs, stairs, fences, doors and more.StonecutterStonecutterStone sawyerCuts stone into stairs, slabs, walls, bricks and more.CarpenterCarpenter's BenchCarpenterCrafts chests, barrels, ladders, tools, boats and other wooden goods.CarrierWicker BasketCarrierCarries items between chests along up to three routes.FarmerComposterFarmerHarvests and replants the fields around its composter.GuardTargetGuardShoots the monsters around its target at night and picks up its arrows in the morning.FletcherFletching TableFletcherMakes arrows, bows and crossbows, with heads of flint from gravel or of copper and iron.LibrarianLecternLibrarianEnchants tools, weapons, armor and books at an enchanting table, paid with bottles o' enchanting.WeaponsmithGrindstoneWeaponsmithForges tools and weapons, grinds two worn tools into one and disenchants loot for bottles o' enchanting.TannerCauldronTannerMakes leather of rabbit hide and rotten flesh, and books, saddles and leather armor in the color of your village.ApothecaryBrewing StandApothecaryBrews potions step by step at the brewing stand, makes glass bottles and heals injured workers.FisherBarrelFisherFishes near its barrel, from the shore or out in a boat.ButcherSmokerButcherBreeds and slaughters the animals around its smoker and smokes the meat.ShepherdLoomShepherdShears and breeds the sheep around its loom.SmithBlast FurnaceSmithSmelts ore in the blast furnace, or repairs tools at a smithing table.Pit_DiggerPit StakePit diggerDigs out a pit you mark with string, layer by layer, with a ladder as the way out.MinerMining BenchMinerDigs a tunnel with supports into a hill, side tunnels or stairs down, follows the ores and seals off water and lava.Kiln_OperatorKilnKiln operatorFires glass, stone, bricks, terracotta and charcoal in the kiln.Shop_AssistantTrading CounterShop assistantSells goods from its chests to the villagers around, through their own trades, and brings in emeralds.VillagerScaffoldingMore plannedMine logistician, merchant, cartographer and more are on their way. See what is coming.

Every worker needs emeralds Emerald as its wage. Right-click it with them; it takes one emerald each day, but only on a day it gets something done. No wage, no work. Hired late in the afternoon (in the last third of the work hours), a worker works the rest of that first day for free.

How it works in short

  1. Work ContractHire Craft a work contract and right-click a villager with it.
  2. Chopping BlockWorkstation Place a workstation. The villager walks there and takes the job.
  3. ChestChests Link chests: where the material comes from and where the products go.
  4. EmeraldWage Right-click the worker with emeralds (and its tool, if it needs one).
  5. ClockWork During the day the villager works on its own. Its menu shows what it is doing.

New here? Start with Installation and then Your first worker, which walks you through your first lumberjack.

Features at a glance

  • Seven professions that work together: a lumberjack feeds a sawyer, a carrier brings the planks to a carpenter.
  • Workers really walk to chests, open them and work at their stations, with sounds and particles.
  • Hired villagers find a free workstation by themselves, never take vanilla jobs and never leave their job by themselves.
  • The menus show what each worker is doing right now: chopping 40 %, waiting for wages, done for today, sleeping, ...
  • Lumberjacks only touch natural trees, so your log houses are safe.
  • New: the woodcutter Woodcutter, a stonecutter for wood, and the carpenter's bench Carpenter's Bench, a crafting table for wooden things. Both are useful for players too.
  • Woodcutter recipes and carpenter products are data driven, so data packs and other mods can add their wood. The sawyer's orders only know the vanilla wood types.
  • Wage, speeds, distances and limits can be set in a config file.
  • Works on Fabric and NeoForge, in singleplayer and on servers.